The Democratic Party has officially become the anti-free speech party by adopting a plank in its party platform that promises to prosecute climate change skeptics. 

It was one thing when Democratic state attorneys general banded together to "investigate" skeptics.  But now the entire party has gotten behind the most vigorous assault on free expression since World War II.

Daily Caller:

A panel of Democrats voted Friday to approve a final draft of the party’s platform to promote “Progressive Democratic Values,” which apparently includes investigating energy companies who “misled” shareholders about global warming.

“Another joint proposal calling on the Department of Justice to investigate alleged corporate fraud on the part of fossil fuel companies who have reportedly misled shareholders and the public on the scientific reality of climate change was also adopted by unanimous consent,” according to the Democratic National Convention’s website.

The drafting committee, led by DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, has decided to back ongoing investigations by mostly Democratic state attorneys general into ExxonMobil’s stance on global warming.

Currently, AGs from California, Massachusetts, New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands have launched investigations of Exxon, and at least two AGs have demanded records on conservative think tanks and scientists skeptical of global warming. Such targeting has only fueled calls that these investigations are an attack on free speech.

New York AG Eric Schneiderman was the first to launch an investigation into Exxon, based on reporting from eco-left wing reporters at InsideClimate News and Columbia University. Schneiderman hosted a conference in March with other AGs to announce more investigations into Exxon.

Republican lawmakers and AGs have pushed back, calling the investigations into Exxon and think tanks an assault on free speech.

Some Republican AGs recently warned their liberal counterparts that if skeptics can be investigated for misrepresenting global warming, alarmists can be as well.

The A.G.s pushing this extortion scheme are saying that a couple of memos from the 1970s, when few scientists were working on climate change, and some meetings where the possibility of climate change was discussed in the 1990s constitute "fraud."  But whatever "evidence" they've uncovered is a smokescreen.  As Greenpeace points out, the Democrats want government to go after fossil fuel companies for the big payday.

Altogether, the picture for fossil fuel companies is beginning to look a lot like the fall of tobacco industry in the 1990s and 2000s.

Under that legal movement, the tobacco industry settled with 46 states to hand over hundreds of billions of dollars for public health, anti-smoking campaigns, and policy initiatives. The federal Department of Justice launched a fraud and racketeering lawsuit against the industry, winning the case in 2006.

Exxon and other multi-nationals can take care of themselves.  But what of think-tanks and individuals being targeted by government?  Dozens of organizations and ordinary people can have their lives ruined and think-tanks shut down, because the expense of defending oneself against these spurious charges is immense.

That's the plan, of course.  Destroying lives will force most other skeptics to keep their mouths shut, freeing government from the burden of having to prove anything it says about climate change and allowing Washington to implement job-destroying, industry-killing regulations.

Today, it's climate change skeptics.  Who will it be tomorrow?